Thursday, 21 September 2017

Over at the Seven hill Craft challenge they have asked for you to use the "spotlight " technique and to use only their products ..which is a huge list btw and the reason I know this? its my go to shop for all those American brands that are hard to source over here, and can be found most mornings having my coffee and a wee browse of it at the same time lol.But back to the challenge,

Never having used this technique before did a bit of research and it says to highlight through colour or layers part of your image.

So intrigued decide to give it a go!

Many moons later and tearing of hair :( this is what I came up with....

I'm not sure if it's right,but after I tried multiple images with one part highlighted but found I was never happy - they all looked wrong somehow !Decided to stamp these Paper Smooches snowmen which I got ages ago and are now out of stock I see, used an oval die to cut out a section (didn't realise it was scalloped until i had cut it out ..but actually think it worked better.)

I then coloured in the cut out section before popping it back in the main panel .But thinking now that I should have maybe double layered it so it popped out more or left a bit more uncoloured then just the scarves???

But actually I quite like it, and the idea of a challenge is to challenge yourself is it not!

Saturday, 16 September 2017

While I've been away on holiday I found myself checking out Muse:Christmas Visions and this was an idea I came up with while I was basking in the sun in Portugal - back to freezing winds and rain now though :(

I thought it had combined most of the elements that Kimberley had incorporated into her card ..

White and gold colours scheme

Snowflake

One of the sentiment words

sentiment across the top

gold embossing

but added my own twists to it so feeling reasonably happy with it.... until i tried to photograph the ruddy thing OMG I practically tore my hair out !I had tried to do it outside - no too rainy and then tried in every room in the house eventually decided to use the light box I'm still not happy with it ,but ladies I have lost the will to take another photograph of it so here it stands !!!!!

Another card for the challenge over at Muse:Christmas Visions and admit this is my favourite and one that I might make a heap for Christmas! ..and it came about as a heap of mistakes :)

I had first stamped the Christmas wreath from Clearly besotted and coloured using the colours that were in Cornelias's wreath.But kept making mistakes and so I kept adding them into a pile and by the time I had the one done that I liked with no mistakes, I had this pile beside me so I decided to glue them all together to make it pop out more on the card.

Then it seemed odd to have the wreath just be hanging there in mid air so remembered that Cornelias had an elf wearing a Santa hat and a puny sentiment to go with it . Quick look through my stash and found a PS bird with hat and added that before finished by adding the puny sentiment ....and of course more liquid pearls to the centre of my snowflakes (where would I be without them!!!)

Thursday, 24 August 2017

I'm back with card 2 for this months Muse:Christmas Visions challenge I did struggled a bit with this one but hoping you can see where I was inspired ...no ?? then let me help you out.:)

I dont have many reindeer stamps ..ok I have 2! but both seemed not to be quite right and Ive used them umpteen times before,so thought I would have a look through the stash and came across this old SU set .The stamps kind of matched the baubles hanging off the stags antlers on Cornelia's card (though as you can see I switched the star with a snowflake)

I saw that the baubles were the only pop off colour in an otherwise black and white card so decided to carry that theme through out - and to mimic the stocking hanging off the sentiment ? I added the holly .Hopefully that has made it much more clearer for you :)

Wednesday, 23 August 2017

There is a fun theme going on over at Muse:Christmas Visions and there is prizes upi for grabs so why don't you head over and see what they are up to !

Though I have been occasionally playing along (but not actually been linking up my cards) found myself mulling over Cornelia's cards while I should have been doing other things :) so gave in and headed up to my crafty room!I made a very simple card that hopefully you can see was inspired by her very first card ,and the black tape and white houses which caught my eye. I switched the colours around and the type of houses by using this set from Paper smooches and some distress inks...and instead of using the liquid pearls as snow this time I made the dots smaller to represent stars!!

Friday, 11 August 2017

I was really delighted to be picked as winner for week 112 over at Cas on Friday and also to be asked to be a guest designer this week on their theme of 'Birthday'.

I seem to be enjoying bright and bold colours just now and so I decided to use this Paper Smooches stamp as I was also in the mood for a bit more of promarker colouring.

Then fussy cut it out ..you can probably see that by the uneven bits! I attached it to the sentiment panel.The image has a touch of wink of stella here and there - but impossible to photograph today for some reason ,and to finish a few gems to sparkle,because who doesn't love a bit of sparkle on their birthday :)

Friday, 14 July 2017

But never mind I have made a card for this weeks Cupcake inspirations colour challenge and when I saw it I straightaway thought of these little fella's.

:)

I stamped and coloured them with promarkers and added a touch of sparkle with a wink of stella pen (got to have sparkle at Christmas!)and then adhered it to a cream textured panel on a red card base.I then thought it looked a bit plain so added some 'snow flakes' using some perfect pearls.

Added the sentiment using a scrap of cream card from the card panel and my first Christmas card of the year was done ....just another 50+ to do :)

Monday, 19 June 2017

My life and that of Mr Jems (Darnells name for my hubby...dont you just love it!)has taken a new direction ,one which I have wanted to do for a very long time and can't wait to get started!

But it will make cardmaking difficult at times so though I will continue to make cards (how could I stop!)as often as possible and to take part in the Muse challenges - after all it is my favourite place to find inspiration!!!!I felt that I couldn't commit 100% at the moment, and that's not fair to my very talented teamies .

So for them and to all of the other fabulous card makers that join in with the Muse challenges I wanted to say a heartfelt thank you....

What better way to say it then than through a card :)

Muse was my very first DT role and I have just loved it!.There is nothing to describe that feeling when the post goes live and you hope that someone will play along with you ...dread ,relief and downright covetness ...is that a word?? :) as you see what everyone comes up with and think wow why didn't I think of doing that !

Ladies it has been a blast ,see you in the gallery one last time thank you!

Sunday, 4 June 2017

I was so chuffed that I found my mojo again and I enjoyed making the card for Arydth's birthday sooo much that I found myself wanting to see how they would look done different ways so above is the 2nd one I did ...I really wanted to take part in the Time Out challenge as my blog friend Michele Ferguson has the honoured guest spot this time, and she has chosen the saying :-

'Flowers and friends make life a garden'

after I made it I saw the challenge over at the Seven Hill blog and it was to....

I think I have followed what they meant:) by first diecutting out a square,then stamped in memento black ink Mama Elephant Freestyle florals and then coloured using promarkers by just using the colours red, yellow and blending them it made that lovely orangey red and of course green.

I then diecut out the 'fabulous' sentiment from (MFT) , I decided to cut out 4 more of the sentiment using scrap card to make it really stack up when I placed it back into the original 'fabulous' diecut - problem was it was now very difficult to see ...was now more of a hidden message on the card so I thought a wink of stella would make it stand out more - mmm no! so I did a close up for you to see it better hopefully :)

Wednesday, 31 May 2017

This week over at Muse there is something different going on ..its a very special birthday party for Ardyth who turned 50 this week !yup yo heard right our favourite card maker has reached the fabulous 50's.

The rules of this weeks challenge is to ...Choose your Muse from any card that Ardyth has made and play along to be in with a chance to win a pressie !!

Well Ardyth I couldn't let such a special birthday pass without sending you a virtual birthday card.My problem was choosing one from the vast amount so actually I chose a few ....

I chose the colours from the butterflies ,the flowers and inlaid die from the second card and |I'm hoping you can see I the number in the centre of the card with the sentiment going across it from the last one!The number i put on was of course the big 5-0 stacked up and inlaid back in.

(closer view of the numbers can you spot it??)

I was so happy to do this card as for the last few weeks or should I say months I have cardmakers block :( mojo wasn't even on the same planet as me and I was getting so frustrated how do you deal with something like that?? everyday I would go to make a card and ...blank!!So delighted to be back in the game again :) :) :)

Monday, 15 May 2017

For my card this week for Muse, I made one in a really simple in design but to make it pop a bit I stamped and coloured it some really bright colours and finished with a wink of stella .Almost impossible to see and photograph I know

!!!!I You will by now know by now, how I love the texture of this card stock and thinks it works especially great with these simple designs

I find myself drawn to this type of brightly coloured cards just now and can see myself making a batch of these with different sentiments.

I hope it will inspire you to join in this week with us and can't wait to see what you come up with 😊

Wednesday, 26 April 2017

We had a lovely holiday in Portugal last week (although the mosquitoes loved me a bit toooo much!)

I have friends who has moved over there in the last year and we were lucky enough to be able to rent the apartment next door to them and even the weather was great .... came back to snow hail sleet and rain!!!!!!

So my card will be on its way to say a huge thank you to Shirley and Chris for making our stay such a great one.

I used the clearly besotted feeling sheepish stamp set,love the punny sentiments.

Monday, 17 April 2017

For this week's Muse card I have made a very simple card using Altenew watercolour wonders stamp set with stormy sky distress inks for both panels and and love how this turned out ...

I hope you do too and will inspire you to play along with us again this week!

The sentiment is because by the time you read this we will be in sunny Portugal for a weeks holiday wahoo! It was one of those spur of the moment decisions and I can't wait a family friend is there and can't wait to have a good old catch up with her!

So thanks for taking the time to look this week if i am a bit slow in commenting please bear with me our apartment in Portugal has WIFI but I have been warned it can be patchy at times!

Thank you for taking the time to pop in by hope to see you in the gallery!

P.s I have been using picasa to edit my pictures but not very happy with it anyone got any other ones I could try??Thanks

Friday, 31 March 2017

I went on the Cupcake Inspiration Challenge Pinterest board looking for inspiration for their challenge this week with flowers in my mind and ended up looking out this stamp set from SSS instead ...not much difference is there :)

I think it was the colours that drew me but there is such a lot of inspiration had to follow them on Pinterest!

This week is their 400th challenge... wahoo ladies that is some inspiration! and they are asking that you make a card that combines one of their past inspiration themes with a birthday card .There is also prizes up for grabs too!Head over there and have a look.

Monday, 20 March 2017

This week I had to make a baby card and I thought it would be perfect for Muse this week because who doesn't need a baby card at sometime?

I used Lawn fawns little bundle for the washing line using my promarkers and zig pens to colour and Pink petticoat digi gingham paper for the backing .I added wink of stella on the dress sash so it would sparkle in the light and well little girls need a little bit of glitz!

Sorry about the photo isn't closer but I had taken the photos and then delivered the card and meant to crop this a bit more when I unfortunately found I had deleted it off the camera ...me and technology do not mix well ! :)

Very simple I know but hoping it will inspire you too join in with us this week!!

Thursday, 9 March 2017

When I first saw the code word for CASology my first thought was a landmark birthday and there just happens to be one coming up for the janitor in my old work so decided to make a card for him on his retirement there is no bigger landmark than that!

I stamped the beach image from a wooden cube stamp that I have and I had this deckchair image too so decided to add the two together as Alan and his wife love nothing better then jetting off into the sun! and are looking forward to more holidays in the future.

I heat embossed the images in black EP and with a thin brush I water coloured them in . Stamped my CB sentiment .Made a watercolour wash on a scrap piece of water colour card and mounted my image on that before mounting them both in a stone coloured card ...yes I know in the photo it looks grey!:)

Monday, 20 February 2017

On March the 28th its Mothers day here in the UK and I'm getting mine done early as my mother- in -law will be away for that weekend.

But this card is sooo out of my comfort zone! But this card is also for my mother-in law and she likes a bit more on her cards and I cant help but notice that only these style of cards get a 'oh this is pretty!' when she opens it :) and I really struggle with them, but it is her day so we will go with it - after all that's what card making is about isn't it? getting it right for the recipient!

It might have looked better if I hadn't discovered that I had run out of watercolour card so had to use promarkers and I always seem to be heavy handed with them and they don't seem to blend as well so apologies for the colouring...... but I'm sure you can do much better!!!

I counted the layers if you include the rose and the diecuts and the card base its 7!:) I also used diecuts and a stencil for the brick work behind the rose...though in the photo I know its very hard to see.

But thank you for taking the time to pop in by for a look hope you are inspired to join us over at Muse this week.

Monday, 13 February 2017

Over at Seven Hills Craft they have their February challenge up and running and its a colour one this month !

My eyes were drawn straight to the yellow and grey shades and after a few major failed attempts at making a card, I came up with this Sugar Pea baby stamp set and as there is a lot of babies coming this year thought I'd add it to my stash as a just in case card...everyone needs one of them don't they! :).

Thursday, 9 February 2017

This week over at Cupcake inspirations we were given a colour challenge and as I was lucky enough to win some digi images from A day for Daisies for this card a couple of weeks ago ,decided to use theminside my cocktail glasses.I really quite like the effect reminds me of a mimosa cocktail we had on holiday!!

I diecut the glasses out and added acetate behind them to mimic glass. I coloured them as close as I could to this weeks challenge using rose pink and yellow promarkers ..except I didnt have the light green :( so had to go darker for the stems. I liked the sparkle on the inspiration photo so I added a wink of stella on the flowers and the butterfly before mounting it on a darker pink and finally on black .

Tuesday, 24 January 2017

This week over at the Timeout challenge we Have a CASe with a twist card inspiration from Ksenija!I took inspiration from Ksenijas colours, flowering leaves and thank you card .I added my own twist by making Ksenija's strip of red a red border and diecutting my thank you out a few times and popping it back into its originally space. I flipped Ksenijas layout to make it a landscape card before finally adding tiny dots of liquid pearl to finish it off .I see over at Cupcake inspirations they are also asking for pearls so going to add my card there too!.Thanks for taking the time to pop in byxxx